Software leaves its mark: Memes and architectonics in Australian trademarks 1950-2000

A timeline juxtaposing examples of trademarks registered in Australia and milestones in the development of computer graphics hardware and software during the years 1950-2000 is used to investigate two propositions about the relationship between software tools and visual culture. One proposition is that some capabilities that had not yet been realized in software tools were pre-empted by visualizations that, in retrospect, attest to the desire to realize those techniques, such as 3D computer-aided drawing, that eventually the software made easily feasible and in some cases automated. This idea is similar to and supportive of Geoffrey Batchen’s (1999) assertion that the desire for photography in Western culture is documented as preceding photography’s invention. The other proposition is that the capabilities offered by software tools have conditioned the architectonic form and therefore the stylistic outcome of the resultant artifacts. However, the cause and effect supposition embedded in the latter proposition is eminently debatable.